An NFL player who finds love when he least expects it…
T.J.
Kline launches a brand new series with the charming story of an NFL player who
finds love when he least expects it…
Grant
McQuaid has dedicated his entire life to his football career. Now an injury
threatens his place on the team and he’s forced to return home to rehabilitate.
But when he meets his “biggest fan,” a precocious, blue-eyed, hearing impaired
boy named James—and his beautiful mother, Bethany—Grant begins to question
whether football is the future he still wants.
Bethany
Mills has been doing just fine since her husband walked out on them… and she
definitely doesn’t need another man to disappoint her—or her son. But when James
runs into his hero at the park, Bethany admits there is a void in her son’s
life that she just can’t fill. Her attraction to the handsome football star is
undeniable, but a man in the limelight is the last thing she wants for herself,
or James.
Grant doesn’t
want to subject Bethany to the chaos of dating a professional athlete. But the
more time he spends with her and James, the harder it is to resist making a
play for her heart…
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Grant McQuaid finds himself back in his hometown trying to work his way back from a potential career ending injury. He only has a little more time before Pre-Season Training starts and he needs to make sure he can prove to the owners and coaches of the Memphis Mustangs that he still has what it takes to be a star player on the team. What he never expected was to run into Bethany Mills and her son James, who just so happens to be one of his biggest fans, at the park while working out with his brother.
There is something about Bethany and her son. He can't seem to get them out of his head, which isn't helping with his training program. Bethany is trying to start over. With a son with disabilities and a husband who left once they found out their perfect son was deaf, she has spent the last 6 years trying to protect bother James and hers heart. She has a strict no dating rule but the sexy football player who has captured her sons heart right from the start, is slowly is starting to slowly open her heart to the man who just can't stay away from them.
Grant finds out that he may not be able to follow his dream of being back in the NFL but will Bethany and James help to fulfill another dream of his?
I adored James and his love for Grant. Grant is sexy and all alpha, just what the secluded Bethany needs in her life.
This book is a definite win and I can't wait to read more from TJ Kline.
Grant waited at his car for Bethany and James to finish up inside the classroom. He’d spent the rest of lunch recess entertaining nearly forty kids who’d come running over when they realized James knew a professional football player. The smile that lit James’ face when he introduced Grant had been well worth the discomfort he’d faced trying to explain why he was at the school to Bethany.
He couldn’t blame her for being standoffish with him when she first saw him there. What kind of weirdo showed up at your job the day after you told him to take a hike? But something had shifted in her today. He’d seen it in her eyes when he tried to explain why he’d come. Enough that he was willing to push his luck and see if she wasn’t up for having ice cream today.
Grant saw her heading toward her older model sedan in the school parking lot, juggling an armload of books, papers and teaching supplies. James wore a small backpack with a cartoon character he didn’t recognize on his little shoulders but Bethany carried an overfilled tote bag that had to weigh more than she did.
“Hey! Here, let me get that for you.” He hurried to her side, sliding the bag from her shoulder. Apprehension colored her hazel eyes and, for a moment, he wondered if she wasn’t going to tell him to leave again. Instead, she unlocked her car.
He couldn’t blame her for being standoffish with him when she first saw him there. What kind of weirdo showed up at your job the day after you told him to take a hike? But something had shifted in her today. He’d seen it in her eyes when he tried to explain why he’d come. Enough that he was willing to push his luck and see if she wasn’t up for having ice cream today.
Grant saw her heading toward her older model sedan in the school parking lot, juggling an armload of books, papers and teaching supplies. James wore a small backpack with a cartoon character he didn’t recognize on his little shoulders but Bethany carried an overfilled tote bag that had to weigh more than she did.
“Hey! Here, let me get that for you.” He hurried to her side, sliding the bag from her shoulder. Apprehension colored her hazel eyes and, for a moment, he wondered if she wasn’t going to tell him to leave again. Instead, she unlocked her car.
Grant wasn’t sure if he should ask but knew it would look far more suspicious if he didn’t now. “What are you guys up to? I thought maybe I could convince you to get that ice cream today.”
James’ face brightened and he looked up at his mother. “Can we?”
Bethany bit her lower lip. “We can’t.”
Grant tried not to take the second rejection to heart and nodded in understanding.
“Our downstairs toilet broke this morning and I had to turn it off. Now I’ve got to run to the store for the part and figure out how to fix it,” she explained.
Relief he hadn’t expected coursed through him. Maybe she wasn’t shooting him down after all. He let the corner of his mouth tip up playfully. “Ms. Mills, that sort of sounds like a load of C-R-A-P,” he spelled, laughing at his bad pun.
Her eyes widened but she smiled at his audacity. “Mr. McQuaid,” she scolded.
James giggled beside her and Grant immediately realized his mistake. “Mom, he spelled a bad word.”
“How did he . . . never mind. I should have known this genius could spell that,” Grant said, trying not to laugh. “How about if I help you fix your toilet?”
She popped open the truck, indicating that he should set her bag inside. “You want to fix my toilet?” Bethany crossed her arms and leaned a hip against the side of the car as she closed the trunk. “Really? That’s the line you want to go with?”
Grant shrugged but the smile never left his lips. What was it about this woman and her kid that made him feel so comfortably at ease? He hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long time. She made it easy for him to forget about his injury, the pressure of his upcoming training camp and his possible job loss.
“What do you say, little man? You think between the two of us men, we can fix the toilet for your mom?”
“Yes!” he yelled cheerfully. James climbed into the back seat of the car and buckled himself into his booster seat.
“I’ll meet you at the hardware store.” Grant turned to walk back to his car.
“I’m not going to get rid of you, am I?”
Grant paused and looked back over his shoulder at her. “Why would you want to?” he asked with a wink and jogged the rest of the way back to his car.
T. J.
Kline was raised competing in rodeos and Rodeo Queen
competitions since the age of 14 and has thorough knowledge of the sport as
well as the culture involved. She writes contemporary western romance for Avon
Romance, including the Rodeo series and the Healing Harts series. She has
published a nonfiction health book and two inspirational fiction titles under
the name Tina Klinesmith. In her very limited spare time, T.J. can be found
laughing hysterically with her husband, children, and their menagerie of pets
in Northern California.
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